President Joe Biden will announce the injection of $36 billion in funding to bolster the multi-employer Central States Pension Fund and prevent “drastic cuts” to the pensions of more than 350,000 union workers and retirees on Dec. 8.
According to the Biden administration, the funding was approved by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) and is the largest-ever amount of federal aid awarded to a pension fund.
The funding will be sourced from the American Rescue Plan, the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package Biden signed into law in 2021.
“Without the historic Special Financial Assistance program included in President Biden’s American Rescue Plan, these workers and retirees—who have already earned these benefits—would have faced estimated benefit reductions of roughly 60 percent in the next few years,” according to a White House fact sheet previewing the announcement. “The Central States Pension Fund estimates that it will now be able to pay full benefits to workers and retirees through 2051.”…